Cheree Cleghorn, the author of How To Speak Doctor®, has worked as a medical reporter at The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, N.C. and at the senior level in a wide variety of health care institutions in Chapel Hill, N.C.; Detroit, Mi.; Baltimore, Md.; Washington, D.C. and Leesburg, Va. While her experience centered on public affairs, other duties included planning, regulatory and operations in four of these five institutions.

She knows her way around the health care system. More importantly, she knows why patients, their families and friends can get lost and at what points they are most likely to need help. She has developed a communications program to help patients, their doctors, other caregivers and their families or friends get the best results possible, as often as possible. Ms. Cleghorn believes patients can build skills which give them tools to find better care and should not count on luck or convenient services to see them through.

How To Speak Doctor, an online course designed to help medical patients get the most from their medical minutes, has been in development for 10 years. The author drew on medical research from peer-reviewed journals; interviews with physicians and other caregivers; interviews with patients, their friends and family members; and her professional experience to create a unique online course to help patients communicate with and get the best results from health care professionals.

She is also the editor and publisher of The Patient Report, a website offering news, commentary and related information for people with an interest in being an effective patient or supporting a family member or friend who is too sick to manage alone.

The complete How to Speak Doctor program offers:

• Self-paced learning through an online course
• Summaries of each chapter
• Quizzes to help participants confirm that they learned the key points in that chapter (Participants must make 100 on each quiz to go to the next section)
• Confirmation of completion to receive any employer benefits offered
• A dedicated, password-protected website, available 24/7, including checklists, tools, tips and reviews to refresh readers on what they learned in the course